Dive Brief:

• Yamaguchi, Japan-based Fast Retailing, the parent of Uniqlo, Theory, J Brand, and other apparel brands, is offering a four-day workweek to about a fifth of its full-time workforce in its Japanese stores, Bloomberg reports. To do so, employees will have to work 10-hour days and Saturdays and Sundays, the retailer's busiest days. 

• The move is an effort to retain good employees, especially at Uniqlo, which spends a lot of time and money training its store associates.

• If the trial is successful, the four days on, three days off approach will be extended throughout the company, including at its corporate offices and at more stores.

Dive Insight:

Japan is no stranger to an intense workweek — more than a fifth (22%) of workers there are at their jobs for more than 49 hours each week, while just 16% of American workers do. So this is a fairly radical move for a Japanese company and for a company with lower skilled workers. Bloomberg notes that several companies here with highly skilled workers have found their retention of employees improves vastly with a shortened workweek. 

Retail jobs are notoriously demanding, and the company may find that a shorter work week does wonders for store employees, who have a chance to spend time with families or fit in other pursuits. That would be especially true if workers are able to schedule their hours within those shorter work weeks in a way that allows them to make a living while also taking care of children, pursuing an education, or even holding down another job. 

But, as Bloomberg notes, Fast Retailing’s move doesn’t exactly extend to working conditions at its overseas manufacturing, for which the retail company has garnered criticism.